V Day & Zap the State

Vagina Monologues: The Making of a Movement
By Marianne Schnall, Women’s Media Center. Posted February 7, 2008.

http://www.alternet.org/reproductivejustice/75843/

At a benefit performance on February 14, 1998, Ensler launched V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and girls. Ten years and thousands of benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues later — including a star-studded run on Broadway and a sold-out event at Madison Square Garden — V-Day has raised over 50 million dollars for anti-violence programs across the globe and staged events in more than 120 countries. Even Ensler is astonished. “Look, I hoped we could do one big event in New York,” she laughs. “And the weird thing is, it’s still going. Every year I think, ‘OK, this will be the end of The Vagina Monologues, we’ll be done.’ And in fact, I think this is the biggest year we’re ever had.” With more than 1,250 locations signed up, 2008 will see some 3,500 V-Days, she estimates.

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MORE:
http://www.anarcha.org/pictures.php

On 16/02/2008, at 11:07 PM, Viola Wilkins wrote:

February 15, 2008
On Tenth Anniversary of V-Day, Vagina Monologues Playwright Eve Ensler Focuses on Violence Against Women in New Orleans and Gulf South

Playwright and activist Eve Ensler discusses the ten-year anniversary of the first benefit performance of her award-winning play, The Vagina Monologues, to spread awareness about violence against women and girls. Every year, “V-Day” has focused on women’s struggles from a different part of the world. This year the focus is on the women of the Gulf South, with a major event planned in New Orleans on April 11th and 12th.

Eve Ensler, Award-winning playwright and creator of The Vagina Monologues, which has been translated into over forty-five languages and is running in theaters all over the world. She is the creator of V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls.

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/2/15/on_tenth_anniversary_of_v_day

Related
http://v10.vday.org/

http://www.vdaymelbourne.lgbtiq.com/

http://events.vday.org/2008/World/Melbourne_(UTVS)

JUAN GONZALEZ: Sexual violence against women and children has reached epidemic proportions in certain parts of Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya, the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, warned on Tuesday. Today is the tenth anniversary of V-Day, a global movement to combat precisely such acts of violence around the world.

Ten years ago, playwright and activist Eve Ensler held the first benefit performance of her award-winning play, The Vagina Monologues, to spread awareness about violence against women and girls. Every year, V-Day has focused on women’s struggles from a different part of the world. This year the focus is on the women of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

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ZAP THE STATE
We Learn As We Go” – Zapatista Women Share Their Experiences
By Hilary Klein, Source: TowardFreedom.com, Z Net, February, 05 2008

Rhetoric vs. Reality
One of the tensions in the history of women’s participation in the Zapatista movement has been the gap between rhetoric and reality. This is not unique to the Zapatista movement – it is a common contradiction in radical and revolutionary movements. Rhetoric about women’s rights is an important first step, and can open the door to real changes, but inevitably there is a need for the reality to catch up with the bold and impressive statements being made by the (usually male) leadership about women’s role in the movement. The Zapatista movement has been well known for its women leaders and its promotion of women’s rights. Zapatista supporters were therefore often surprised when they visited Zapatista communities and found women largely still in subordinate positions. In a 2004 communiqué, Subcomandante Marcos recognized this shortcoming. “Even though Zapatista women have had a fundamental role in the resistance,” Marcos writes, “respect for their rights is still, in some cases, just a declaration on paper.”

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From: Z Net – The Spirit Of Resistance Lives
URL: http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/16419